Peter HAS grown up and matured, unfortunately for us however- that is precisely what Joe Q seems to have a problem with. He wants Peter to revert back at the care free, early twenties bachelor who web slinged his way through Roger Stern’s tenure on ASM. Aunt May represented one of the cornerstones of what made up Peter’s world back then- calling her on his phone, making sure she was ok. You kill Aunt May and you instantly age Peter because even if it is from a gunshot- Aunt May is dead and Peter can never be that guy again.
Of course Aunt May had the perfect send off in #400, it was a beautiful issue but eventually the editorial brought her back. Essentially they were gutless, and I guess they figured she made up an irreplaceable part of the Spidey magic. This is true but people die that is life. You could infer that from them bringing May back after she died the perfect death from natural causes, that they now intend to keep her around forever…who knows. IF she ever does ‘die’ again, there will certainly be an air of cynicism and doubts of credibility of such an event amongst many readers.
I think she should die soon, to help free the Spidey mythos from this quagmire that JQ seems to view it through, but not now from a gunshot. As it stands it’s Peter’s fault and he should not be responsible for his aunts death too. Heck, he would probably throw himself off the Brooklyn bridge! She is obviously going to live through this. After that I would say give her a year of print and then kill her off in the right way.